


Gods and Champions

by memorysdaughter



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Late-night talks, Raven Queen - Freeform, Sarenrae
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-14
Updated: 2016-04-14
Packaged: 2018-06-02 03:57:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6549643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/memorysdaughter/pseuds/memorysdaughter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Following Ep. 48, Pike gets fed up with Vax avoiding her and decides it's time they talk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gods and Champions

**Author's Note:**

> I'm pretty sure we're never going to know what Liam texted Ashley and while I'm okay with that, I just got fed up with Vax avoiding Pike, so... this happened.
> 
> Also I like their friendship and I was sad it might suffer.

_Wake up._

Pike stirs, pulls the blanket back over her, sighs.

_Wake up._

Again she stirs, this time opening her eyes to see the faint glow of the fire.  Around her, the rest of Vox Machina sleeps.  She sighs and rolls over.

_Wake up._

Pike groans and crankily opens her eyes. “Fine, I’m awake,” she mutters to the voice in her head, presumably Sarenrae. “Now what?”

_Show him_.

“We really have to work on you being less cryptic.” Pike sighs and gets up.  The air is cold around her and she nearly immediately regrets leaving her cozy bed.  She crosses her arms, tucking her hands into her armpits, and looks around.  She can’t tell what time it is; judging from the one empty bedroll, it’s Vax’s turn for watch. “Him?”

_Show him_.

Pike looks around.  It takes a few moments, but eventually her eyes make out a huddled dark figure near a series of low rocks.  Keeping her body as small as possible, trying to make the least amount of noise while retaining the most amount of heat, she moves towards it.

She knows something’s wrong the moment she gets face-to-face with Vax without him noticing her.

“Shit!” he swears. “How the hell did you do that?”

Pike furrows her brow. “I don’t _sleep_ in my armor, Vax’ildan.”

He looks up at her, irritated. “Leave me be, Pike.”

_Show him._

“I don’t think I can do that,” Pike tells him softly.

Vax gets to his feet and starts to walk away from her.

Something like rage bubbles up in Pike’s throat and before she knows what she’s doing, her hands come up – one clenches her holy symbol and the other pulses out a ray of Sarenrae’s light.  Immediately the light surrounds Vax, pulling him into a seated position on a low rock. “ _Sit down_ ,” she says, her voice suddenly sharp. “You don’t get to walk away from this one.”

Vax looks up at her.  Her teeth are chattering with the cold and with rage.

“At least take my cloak,” he says, his eyes softening as he takes in her radiant – but shivering – form.

“I can’t,” Pike says.

“Yes, you can.  It’s cold out here and…”

“I mean, I can’t do that without dropping the power holding you to that stone.”

Vax rolls his eyes. “Motherfucking clerics.  I promise I won’t get up.  Just… stop freezing.”

Pike doesn’t drop the spell.  On the rock before her, Vax tries to squirm.  The golden glow around him pulls him tight.

“If the others wake up they’re going to wonder what’s going on,” Vax says.

“Good.  They should,” Pike replies. “You’ve been avoiding me, Vax.”

“No, I haven’t.”

This time it’s Pike who rolls her eyes. “Now why don’t I believe you?”

Vax falls silent, his head dropping.

Pike takes pity on him and drops the spell.  She comes to sit next to him on another low rock, reaching up to undo his cloak.

He tilts his head at her.

“You said I could have it,” Pike reminds him tartly, and she wraps it around her.  Almost immediately she disappears into the expanse of fabric, and all Vax can see of the still somewhat-radiant gnome is her face and hair, pale against the dark cloak.

“I did,” Vax admits softly.

It takes a few minutes, but Pike’s teeth stop chattering and she looks over at Vax.  He is pointedly not looking at her.

“I talked to Vex,” Pike says. “She told me what happened.  Down in the temple, when you… when you offered yourself to the Raven Queen.”

Vax doesn’t speak, but Pike sees tears fill his eyes.

“And she told me how you’re afraid that you’ve sacrificed yourself to something dark.  Or evil.”

Vax turns his head further away from her.

Pike leans forward and brings her little hands up, wiping tears from Vax’s face. “And I think you’ve been avoiding me because you’re afraid of disappointing me.”

Vax brings one hand up to stop Pike.  Pike immediately taps the symbol of Sarenrae still sewn into his glove. “Or of disappointing her.”

“You have shown me so much light,” Vax murmurs, his voice somewhat raspy in the still night. “How can I face you when I have turned away from that light, offered myself to the darkness?”

“There is no darkness without light,” Pike says. “And there is no light without darkness.”

Vax shakes his head.

“And there are many paths, but only one destination.”

“How can that be true?” Vax whispers. “How can someone so lovely and radiant and _holy_ believe that?”

Pike sits back, readjusting the cloak around her. “No one… except for priests or archmages or someone like that… is holier than another.  We’re all different expressions of the same face, Vax.  Just because I choose to channel my divinity through service to Sarenrae and Grog chooses to channel his through rage doesn’t make either of us lesser in the end.”

She tucks a free strand of hair behind her ear. “When I was in Vasselheim, working at the temple, the other devotees of Sarenrae there… they treated me like I was their leader.  Like I was a high priestess.  And it was so _strange_ , Vax.  They expected things of me that I felt I could never live up to.  And one night when we were working, a woman from the town brought her child to us.  He was so ill, Vax – on death’s door.  All of the other temples had turned her away.  I still don’t know how he managed to survive the trip to the temple, but he did.  She brought him to us and the others in the temple looked to me to heal him.

“And when I did… when he was restored… they all looked at me with a new light in their eyes.  And it wasn’t a comforting light.”

“They were scared of you,” Vax says quietly.

Pike nods. “All that time they’d seen me as someone who’d spent more time in Sarenrae’s service than they had.  Somehow they were unprepared for what I could do, of the power I had at my disposal.  In that moment I missed Vox Machina more than I ever had.  You never look at me like I’m _special_ , or _more_ , or _strange_.  When I’m with you I’m just _Pike_.  I’m just Grog’s best friend and Scanlan’s never-gonna-happen.  I’m the cleric, sure, but you all see me as something else, as some _one_ else, and that’s what I love most about being with you.”

She leans forward again, her hand resting on the symbol of Sarenrae. “And do not think for one moment that you could possibly disappoint me, Vax.  You never gave your pledge to Sarenrae.”

“But I _did_ give one to the Raven Queen.”

“So you have a calling.  It’s not to _whom_ that’s important.”

“Really?  Would it be the same if I’d pledged myself to the Illithid?”

“You’re missing the point, Vax.”

At that her hand begins to glow, softly, and Vax sees the symbol on his glove begin to radiate that divine energy as well.

When Pike speaks her voice is husky and low. “If there were something truly wrong with you, Vax, if there was something _evil_ in your body, I would not be able to do that.  And because I _am_ …”

He looks over at her for the first time in what seems like forever.  She suddenly looks very small, and it startles Vax; he isn’t used to Pike looking so fragile. “You’re saying I’m not a lost cause.”

Pike smiles wanly. “Nobody’s a lost cause, Vax.”

“Some things are.”

“Not you, though.  And not me.”

“No.  Never you.”

“But I could have been a lost cause,” Pike reminds him. “It could have gone another way entirely.  Sometimes we have to make our own miracles.”

She moves her hand around and takes his, looping their fingers together in a comfortable way. “Make this a miracle, Vax.  Don’t waste whatever it is the Raven Queen’s going to give you.  I know you, and you’ll find a way to transform things, to use the power you’re given.”

Vax shakes his head. “You don’t know that.”

“No, but I know you,” she repeats. “Also, I’m a _motherfucking cleric_.  I know a lot of things I’m not supposed to.”

“How come you’re so good?”

Pike smiles; this time it’s wider, a true Pike grin. “I’ve had a lot of help.”

She stands up, letting the cloak fall from around her shoulders. “And you’ll have help, Vax, in whatever happens.  I pledge to you, you won’t do this alone.”

“You’re going to help me with the Raven Queen’s mission?”

Pike nods. “I am.”

Once more she taps the symbol of Sarenrae. “And so will she.”

Her teeth start chattering again, and before Vax can suggest she put the cloak back on, she wraps her arms around him, hugging him tight.  Stunned, Vax freezes.  As her arms remained locked around him, he softens, something of her divine light breaking through the dark core that’s built up around his heart, and he finds himself raising his arms to encircle her tiny shivering body.

“Go back to bed, Pike,” Vax says as she finally releases him.

Yawning, she leans forward and kisses him on the forehead before heading back to her bedroll.  As soon as she’s wrapped back up in her blankets Vax scoops up his cloak and wraps it around his shoulders.  The night falls dark and silent around him again.

Except for the symbol on the back of his glove, still glowing like a promise.


End file.
